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For anyone starting out blogging, using a free blogging web site is a great way to get started in the blogosphere. Popular blogging web sites like blogger and Live Journal allow users to set up and host a blog without incuring any costs at all. This promotes blogging, because one of these platforms can provide you with all of the tools that you require to get your blog up and working without spending any cash, and means that you have nothing to lose by starting a blog. The fact that it is so easy to find a way to blog for free is one of the reasons why so many people who have never had any other kind of web presence before find themselves drawn to the blogosphere.

By signing up for a free blogging web site, you may find it easier to get listed in search engines than you would if you were starting your own blog from scratch. For example, google runs the free blog hosting site blogger.com and crawls its pages reguarly looking for updated pages, so if you have your site hosted by blogger you are almost guaranteed to be listed on google’s blog search engine. This easy access to search engines can take some of the work out of promoting your blog, and can give you an advantage in gaining a following with a minimum of effort.

If your blog pulls in a large readership, you may wish to consider moving your site. A lot of people feel that being hosted by a free blogging service gives a blog a sort of amateur feel that is fine for a new member of the blogosphere, but is not suited to a high-profile blog. Having your own domain and hosting can help you make your blog feel professional, and finding a company that will host your domain is not difficult or expensive. Once your blog takes off, you will in all likelihood be able to sell enough advertising space to be able to afford to purchase a domain and pay for a hosting package, and still have money left over. However, it doesn’t make sense in most cases to invest in these glossy luxuries before you have a respectable sized readership.

Beginning your blog with a free blogging site is a great way to build a following before you spend any money on your blog. If and when your blog becomes popular and you are ready to take the next step and purchase your own domain, your readers will follow you to your new home. The fact that it is possible to use a free blog host like LiveJournal.com, Blogger.com, or WordPress.com as a kind of incubator for your blog is great news for bloggers everywhere.

If you decide at a later date to install your own hosted wordpress blog you will be able to import your posts into your new blog from some free blogging platforms. If it is likely that you will want to host your own blog eventually both Blogger and LiveJournal are capable of achieving this, although with LiveJournal you cannot import comments.

Consider using Blogger.com or WordPress.com to start your free hosted blog today.

Articles are known to generate web traffic to a site. Articles are a major factor in giving websites high rankings in search engine result pages. The higher a site ranks the larger slice of the traffic he gets. With more traffic, there is more potential for profits.

The importance of articles in today’s internet based businesses are undeniable. They dictate a lot of the success, and can drive a lot of traffic into your website. It is one of the key elements in making a site profitable.

Choose a subject to write about – Writing articles should be about something you know about, so if you own a site, you’re probably fairly knowledgeable about that subject. Before you write your article carry out some research, you can search online or go to the library and check out some books and magazines. When you write your article, you won’t have a hard time because you already know what it is and what it’s about.

Do your keyword research – An article must always be centered on the keywords and keyword phrases, select 2 or 3 keywords per article. As each website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are not just merely browsing but actually looking for a specific answer to their problem. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Dog Training, Classic Cars, Wedding Speaches). It could be anything they want.

The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must have articles about cars and their parts. There are many tools in the internet that provides a service in helping a webmaster out in determining what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought out. You can use this tool to determine what keywords to use and write about.

Write an eye catching headline – If your title can entice a person’s curiosity, one that would immediately grab the attention of your reader, include at least one of your keywords within the headline. Use statements and questions that people are looking for such as How to.., 10 tips to…, 7 ways….

Write 4-5 points you want to cover in your article – This is the framework of your article, now its time to add the meat of your article.

Expand these points into paragraphs – You will need to connect all your paragraphs. This will form the body of your Article. Each article should be 400-600 words in length, if longer split into two articles.

Write an introduction – The introduction will describe the ideas contained in your article. This may be how you found a resolution to a problem you had or something along those lines.

Write an ending – The conclusion will wrap up your points and drive home what you have explained in your article.

create your resource box – If you are going to submit articles to ezines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON’T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description of your site and you should always be placed right after your articles that you have submitted. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site. Include at least one of your keywords as anchor text.

Spell check your articles – Write naturally for a person to read, you cannot just fill an article with keywords. They must also be regarded as good reading materials. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.

Finally – People respond well to facts, figures and statistics. Using specific facts and figures can enhance your article because it makes it authoritative. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic.

It’s just a matter of making your articles creative and interesting. Trust and rely on this outline when preparing your articles because this will prove to be very useful in writing all of your articles.

If you have extensive knowledge on a specific niche, why not produce a free course for your website visitors. The course needs to be relevant to the theme of your website. If you are marketing weight loss associated products, you’d want to giveaway a free course based around losing weight.

You might offer the course in html, autoresponder, or ebook format.

HTML – You can host your course right on your web site. On one web page, create a title page and table of contents. Use clickable chapter links so they can go to the sections easily were they need the most help. Increase your traffic by permitting people to give away the course to their website visitors. Just have them link to your web site.

eBOOK – Your course could be in the form of a downloadable ebook format. Include your business ad in the ebook. A good ebook software to use is Editor Pro, you can find it at http://www.e-ditorial.com . You could allow other people to give away the ebook. They could just upload it to their own server. Each time anyone downloads it, they’ll see your business ad.

AUTORESPONDER – You can distribute your course via an autoresponder. You can sign-up to get a free follow-up autoresponder from GetResponse.com. Include each lesson of your course on each follow-up message you send. You could increase traffic by letting advertisers include their ad within the course. Ask them, in return, to advertise the free course at their website or by emailing their list. Just ask them to link to your web site.

My prefered method is combining sending messages by autoresponder containing a link to an HTML page. This way your prospects get used to receiving your messages, but also visit your web pages where you can place other ads.

There are many other formats you can use to create your free course; downloadable text, pdf, audio, CD/DVD, video, etc. You can combine any of these methods above to increase the perceived value to your visitors.

List building is essential to any online marketing venture, whether you have your own products to sell or you are promoting as an affiliate.

Having a targeted list will allow you to capture the names and email address of interested visitors, this will enable you to build credibility with them and continue to market to them. You must have your own list no matter what your niche.

List building is a fundamental part of any internet marketers arsenal, as it is the result of using this strategy that sales occur. People don’t usually buy right away, it takes several contacts before people will buy.

Without a list, you probably won’t make much money. If you’ve just started out online, what are the chances you’ll be able to compete with the established marketers. You need to grab peoples attention  to get them on your list.

You’ve no doubt heard the saying ‘the money’s in the list’, but actually the real money is in your follow-up. To automate your follow up you will need an autoresponder such as Aweber or GetResponse, this will provide your form code to put on your webpage.

You need to load your autoresponder with 5 – 7 initial messages, your first message should be a welcome message with the download link to any product you have offered as an enticement to opt-in to your list.

Offer great content to your subscribers. Use the ratio of around 3 messages of useful content to 1 where you promote your paid product. Include the link to your paid product in your P.S. at the end of your content messages, just make sure your content is relevant to your product. Your ultimate aim is a happy list, this leads to a more responsive list, and gives you the best chance of keeping your subscribers on the list.

A really great way to attract new subscribers is with video.

For example you create a video promoting a product you are an affiliate of and post it to video hosting sites like YouTube. The result, it brings traffic to your opt-in page and it makes you money on autopilot for a one off creation.

Now you may be saying to yourself that creating a video is too hard and costs too much.

Not any longer, the internet has made video creation a cinch.

There are some free tools out there that can help you, CamStudio, Windows movie maker and Open Office.

You can use Open Office to make your slides, and record your presentation with CamStudio. You can then edit it in Windows movie maker.

Now you know how easy it is what is stopping you from creating your first video that will bring you  additional traffic and income right now.

Too many marketers who use traffic exchanges give up before giving it a chance to produce results. It is not the fastest way but most traffic exchanges are free to join. The secret is to build your downlines in these programs, this will build your credits from other peoples work (surfing).

If you are using traffic exchanges you need to use a fast loading squeeze page with your opt-in form in a prominant position, a catchy headline, may be a graphic and 4 -6 bullet points stating the benefits of the program you are promoting.

Remember your page will only be viewed for a short period of time on a traffic exchange, as most surfers who are also members of traffic exchanges are looking for more traffic!

They will mostly be using a tabbed browser, surfing to gain credits to advertise their own pages. So you should be using at least 50% of your traffic exchange promotion promoting other traffic programs, this will build your downlines in your other TE programs and you will earn credits from refering people to a program as well as off of their surfing. Initially you will need to spend time surfing in the exchanges to gain credits.

The majority of these programs are free to join and allow you to email your downline, this is where you can promote your own product, affiliate products or other opportunities and exchanges. Always make sure you maximise the downline builder in any TE you join by filling in your affiliate details for all the exchanges you are a member of, and consider joining any you are not currently a member of so as you build your downlines these members are signing up at other exchanges in the downline builder through your links.

Other ways to build your traffic exchange downlines can include emailing to your own list, write and submit some articles, or write a post on your blog reviewing a Traffic Exchange you wish to promote. The larger you build your downlines, the more credits you will earn, this will allow you to divert your time to work on your next traffic building strategy.

Traffic exchanges are a great place to get free traffic and start building your own list, and should be used as part of your overall Traffic Strategy.